


Ulterior

by appending_fic



Series: Valuation [1]
Category: Buddy Thunderstruck (Cartoon)
Genre: Buddy Does Not Understand How Things Work, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Investigations, Light Angst, M/M, Marriage, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 23:23:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13646562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appending_fic/pseuds/appending_fic
Summary: "Darnell spat out his grape juice, catching Muncie in the spray. 'Since when is Buddy married?' he demanded."When Darnell learns about something Buddy never told him about his past, he begins to re-evaluate their friendship. For Buddy, things have never been all that complicated.





	Ulterior

Darnell had a high bar for oddity; if he got freaked out over every little thing, he'd never have any time to enjoy his days with his best bro. But he was beginning to think something was seriously weird.

It had started a week ago after race night. Buddy was chatting with his fans, soaking up the attention, when a vixen - passing through or new to town Darnell didn't know - ran a finger down Buddy's chest.

"You wanna ditch this party and go somewhere a little more private?"

"Haha, thank you but no," Buddy replied. "As you can see, I am having the time of my life surrounded by my adoring public. Also, while I am flattered by your obvious attraction, I am already married."

Darnell spat out his grape juice, catching Muncie in the spray.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

"Since when is Buddy married?" Darnell demanded.

Muncie snorted. "I have absolutely no idea. How long have you know him?"

"Years! I would have noticed if he got married. Are you sure he didn't get married before we met?"

"Buddy was a shiftless, lazy good-for-nothing before he met you, so I'm going to guess no."

"Then what the heck is going on here?"

Muncie threw up her hands. "I have a business to keep from running into the ground, so you can bother someone else about this."

"Hey, Darnell, you doing alright? Who am I kidding, you have got to be doing amazing!" Buddy's arm around Darnell's shoulders was a familiar, comfortable pressure as Buddy leaned on Darnell.

"Yeah, doing fine, Buddy."

"I thought so. Hey, Muncie, bring us all the hot wings you got!"

Buddy's marital status remained on Darnell's mind in the following weeks. The thought that there was someone that important in Buddy's life that Darnell didn't know was troubling.

In the end, he decided to consult the smartest person he knew for advice.

"Have you considered that Buddy might have been lying to spare that woman's feelings?"

Darnell stared at Handsome Joe for several moments as he tried to compile his response. "I love Buddy, Handsome Joe, don't get me wrong, but he has never tried to spare someone's feelings. And he didn't get anything out of telling her he was married, so I already thought of that. The only possible explanation is he got married without telling me. Why would he do that?"

"Perhaps he was embarrassed. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha." Handsome Joe slapped his Speak and Spell. "I had already typed that before I realized how foolish it sounded."

"Yeah, I'm right there with you. So what's going on?"

"Is there anyone who might know more about Buddy than you do?"

"What? Who in all of Greasepit would care enough about Buddy to know more about his life than I do?"

Silence held for a moment as Darnell considered the thought.

"So what you're saying is I should talk to Weaselbrat."

Darnell had just stepped out of the Bolo when he was accosted, Buddy grabbing him around the waist.

"There you are! Do you know how worried I was? I wake up and find the bottom bunk empty. You could have been hurt! Lost! Enjoying an awesome adventure without your best bud to have your back! Now come on, we have got to find something to do."

And normally, Darnell wouldn't object to joining Buddy in an ill-advised adventure. But the mystery of Buddy's spouse, of the secret he'd kept from Darnell for...who knew how long, weighed on Darnell. But there was no way to blow Buddy off without causing more trouble than it was worth, so Darnell went along with a trip that ended, as many of their adventures did, with the Rabble Rouser on fire while they nursed their wounds next to the burning truck.

"You know I don't often talk feelings, Darnell, but days like this…" Buddy trailed off, watching the burning truck with an almost wistful edge to his eyes. "Trying out our best ideas with you by my side, they're the sort of days I wanna keep having til the day I die."

Darnell almost said it then, almost asked why, if Buddy liked having Darnell around so much, he'd never thought to mention his mystery spouse. But it was a nice day, and Buddy looked so peaceful, a rarity Darnell didn't want to interrupt, so he let it go.

Instead he spent the next two days trying to get Weaselbrat alone, a feat made impossible if Buddy was anywhere nearby, and slightly more difficult otherwise, because Buddy was clingier than usual. Eventually, Darnell decided to play dirty, asking Buddy to pick up toilet paper and chips at Ziel's. He figured the fact that he didn't specify what kind of chips would buy him at least an extra half-hour on top of the hour it usually took Buddy to make truck stop runs. Darnell felt a little bad about it, but the mystery of Buddy's spouse, of the history he'd chosen to keep from Darnell, was driving him up the wall.

Darnell ignored the flare of annoyance when Mr. Weaselbrat, seeing Darnell had arrived without Buddy, wilted a little in the absence of his hero.

Or, rather, he channelled it into something useful.

"Okay, Weaselbrat, I've got maybe fifteen minutes before Buddy figures out where they keep the toilet paper at Ziel's, so I need to make this quick. Do you know when Buddy got married? And do you know who?"

"Married?" Weaselbrat's chin quivered. "I...would know if Buddy Thunderstruck were married." He grit his teeth, wounded expression giving way to a more determined stare. "But as for the who, well, that's where my Buddy Thunderstruck Relationship Chart will finally earn its keep!"

The subsequent review of Buddy's history with every person in town was...thorough, if not enlightening. It did, however, reveal an item of particular notice when Weaselbrat pulled out a handful of papers from a box.

"I don't know how I forgot, but Buddy did go on that road trip to Paris back in high school."

"Paris...France?"

"Oh, I'd give my right arm to see Buddy Thunderstruck jumping the Atlantic in his truck, but no. Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Texas, of course, probably some others. It was right after he got his driver's license, and I was worried he'd leave Greasepit for good. And then he came back, met you, and the rest is history!"

Darnell perused the postcards, some of which were crumpled and addressed to people other than Weaselbrat, trying to find some hint in them of whoever Buddy had married. There was no mention of a person Buddy, even sixteen-year-old Buddy who still had action figures, would have thought cool enough to marry - not in Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, or even Texas. Still…

"But you're sure you'd know if he had gotten married after that, right?"

"Oh, for sure."

Darnell growled and shoved the postcards in his pockets. "Alright, I've gotta go before Buddy notices I'm gone. Thanks."

"You'll tell me when you figure out, right? And where they registered? I can't be the only person who didn't get them a gift!"

Darnell got home only a few minutes before Buddy, which was more time for reflection than he was comfortable with, because he was freaking out. Weaselbrat was right; Buddy wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret if he'd gotten married in town, which left the only logical explanation that Buddy'd been married the entire time he'd known Darnell, a fact Buddy had never mentioned in the years they'd known each other.

He tried to pull it together when Buddy returned, delving into the Carolina Reaper Pringles Buddy had bought just for an excuse to avoid talking to Buddy.

And in the end, it didn't help. Darnell was up all night staring at the top bunk, evaluating the friendship he'd thought he'd had. Because if Buddy had kept something this huge from Darnell, what else might be hiding?

Darnell tried pretending he was asleep when Buddy got up, but couldn't last more than a few minutes before the silence of their room drove him out of bed. What he found when he got to the kitchen made him pause.

The toaster was humming along quietly, a plate sitting next to it. There was a napkin (no, Darnell amended with a moment's glance, one of his clean rags) folded under it. Buddy was pouring a glass of something neon orange, though he looked up, jolting the jug and spilling a little when Darnell appeared. He beamed, snaggle-toothed grin enough to wash away some of Darnell's anxiety. He didn't know what was going on with Buddy's mystery spouse, but it didn't mean Buddy liked Darnell any less.

"Morning, Darnell! You have seemed a little morose lately, so I made breakfast. I got juice at Ziel's, and found some of these toaster pastries in the cabinet. They should be ready soon, I think. The toaster does not have a timer, though; you should work on that when you've got a few minutes." The toaster dinged, launching two strawberry Pop Tarts into the air. Buddy yelped and leapt for them, catching them neatly, sacrificing half the glass of juice in the process. But he looked so proud when he presented the plate, napkin, and juice to Darnell that Darnell was willing to count it a win.

"This is really nice of you-"

Buddy herded Darnell to the couch, setting his food down on the table. "As you made so clear, this is just one of the things bros are supposed to do for one another? And I know I don't talk about feelings much, but it doesn't mean you can't, if you're feeling down. I gotta have my best bud's back, right?"

Buddy's stupid sincerity did something to Darnell, because before he could stop himself, he blurted, "When did you get married? And to who? Why didn't you _tell me_?"

"I wouldn't think I'd need to tell you, Darnell; after all, you're the one I married."

Darnell waited, expecting some joke, addition, or some sort of explanation. When no explanation was forthcoming, he settled on saying, "What." He felt something else was needed, so he added, "When?"

Buddy dropped down onto the couch next to Darnell, grabbing one of the Pop Tarts and slinging his other arm around Darnell. "Man, don't you remember? It was, gosh, back in high school, right after our final exams, and I was feeling worried because I didn't know if I had graduated or failed. And you-"

"I decided to give you your graduation present early, because there wasn't any way you'd flunked out," Darnell said slowly. "But I still don't-"

"And you found an old truck you got for cheap and had been working on it for months. And when you showed it to me, it was the most beautiful vehicle I had ever seen. You said you named it the Rabble Rouser and I said-"

"'Marry me'," Darnell concluded.

"And you said sure!"

If Darnell remembered correctly, he'd laughed at this ridiculous dog, who looked at the product of Darnell's amateur mechanic work as if he'd been handed a top-of-the-line racer, and said, "Sure, Buddy, whatever you want." Which Buddy had apparently taken as an acceptance.

"But you never said anything after that!"

"Of course not; everything was pretty much settled at that point."

"Buddy, that's not really how any of this works. There's supposed to be a ceremony, and a license…"

Buddy shrugged. "I thought we'd just skipped that step. Obviously I was disappointed we didn't get any presents, but I figured you just didn't want to make a fuss."

"You thought we'd skipped a step. The step where we actually got married."

"Oh." Buddy shifted around, so that Darnell was all but sitting in his lap, and if Darnell had wondered if this was some weird joke, he couldn't anymore. Buddy was always casual, open with his affection toward Darnell, but he looked so earnest as he...cradled Darnell against him. "This isn't like with the TV interview, where you thought I didn't appreciate you, is it? Because I would be delighted to marry the heck out of you in front of God and all of Greasepit, especially if we get some presents out of the deal."

There were a lot of responses Darnell could make. He could explain he'd never really intended to agree to marry Buddy back in high school, although that would require a diversion to clarify that he'd _wanted_ to (or, well, wanted to climb that dog like a tree or make out with him in the backseat of his aunt's Thunderbird; the more emotional reactions had come later), except he hadn't believed Buddy was serious. He could explain that the fact Buddy hadn't mentioned anything about this in years would lead a reasonable person to conclude Buddy had forgotten about it (although the fact Buddy thought they were married _did_ put his insistence they live together, share a bed, bunk or otherwise, be listed as one another's emergency contacts, and have power of attorney, a phrase Darnell wouldn't have guessed Buddy knew, much less understood, in context). He could question why Buddy hadn't mentioned this to anyone else-

"Wait. Do you still have the raw footage from that interview?"

"Of course!"

And there it was, once Darnell got to the portion of the interview that centered on him.

"Of course we have a spat now and again; what married couple doesn't? But whenever I get mad, I take a second to remember he's the love of my life, and I'm so lucky to have him there by my side every day, and every race. I don't know what I'd do without him."

And Darnell got a little lost in Buddy's recorded voice, because he jumped when Buddy spoke from next to him.

"If I did something wrong, you gotta tell me, Darnell, because I can't sit over here seeing you look all sad and teary-eyed."

Darnell shook his head. "Nothing's wrong, Buddy. But you're right; we should go through the whole shebang. Flowers, rings, presents."

Buddy grinned and tugged Darnell closer into his chest. "Sure, buddy, whatever you want."

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah guess who marathoned this short little show? And agrees those dorks are in love?


End file.
